United Nations Volunteers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program is a United Nations organization that advocates the role and benefits of volunteerism for development, integrates volunteers into development programmes, and mobilises volunteers for development projects. It was created to be a development partner for UN organisations by providing volunteers into their development programmes.

UNV is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has its headquarters in Bonn, Germany, and operates through UNDP country offices. In 2006 it was active in 144 countries, and mobilised more than 7,500 volunteers from 160 countries.

UNV was established by the UN General Assembly in 1970. It recruits volunteers from both developed and developing countries, with the majority (67% in 2006) coming from developing countries. Some 40% of UNV volunteers are recruited and operate within their home country (national UNV volunteers).

UNV has liaison offices in Tokyo and New York, and operates a processing center in Cyprus to support the volunteer roster which contains the details of more than 70,000 people in more than 100 professional categories.

Since 1971, UNV has sent more than 30,000 volunteers to work on a wide range of projects in developing countries.

The minimum age of UNV volunteers is 26 years. The average age is 37 years, with 5-10 years of work experience.

UNV also operates the website WorldVolunteerWeb, to promote volunteerism globally. The site was originally created to support the International Year of Volunteers in 2001. UNV was the focal point for IYV 2001.

UNV celebrates the International Volunteer Day on 5 December every year.

UNV operates the Online Volunteering Service which has more than 20,000 individuals and 2,000 development organisations registered.